Did We Refuse To Sign Trump’s Munich Agreement Last Night?

I once read the following statement in a self-help book about emotional blackmail: “Never give Poland to Hitler.” That is, never give into an unreasonable demand, even if it means that you’ll have to fight; standing your ground the first time an emotionally abusive person makes unreasonable demands will prevent an escalation of demands.

I always puzzled over that saying. Shouldn’t the book have read, “Never give Czechoslovakia to Hitler”? After all, Hitler’s annexation of the western portion of the country is what really set World War II into motion.

For those of you who didn’t pay attention in history class, Hitler annexed the Sudentenland, a region in Czechoslovakia, in September of 1938, arguing that the region’s large number of ethnic Germans much preferred to live under German rule. The French and British governments, remembering the horrors of the first World War and eager to prevent a second, agreed to let Hitler have the area in the Munich Agreement. And this was after Hitler illegally joined Germany and Austria in the Aunchluss that March, something expressly forbidden by the Treaty of Versaille. Emboldened by Europe’s policy of appeasement, Hitler pushed for Poland next, invading the country outright the next fall. The United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany and World War II officially began.

While it may be tempting for the protesters to fall into self-congratulatory back patting, the battle has only been half won. Until every detainee is released and Trump’s Muslim reentry ban has been declared unconstitutional and dumped onto the ash heap of history, the people of New York must continue to resist the Trump regime.

And we must resist, just as strongly, the urge to sign our own Munich Agreements, the urge to “give Trump a chance” for the “sake of the country.” If we are truly concerned about the “sake of the country,” we can never give Czechoslovakia to Hitler.